Proceedings of the ASME 2013 32nd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering

OMAE2013
June 9-14, 2013, Nantes, France

OMAE2013-10052

DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF AQUACULTURE FISH CAGES IN IRREGULAR WAVES

*
Li Li Shixiao Fu
State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering,
Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai, 200040 China Shanghai, 200040 China
Runpei Li
State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering,
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai, 200040 China

Based on the extended 3D hydro-elasticity theory in the

ABSTRACT
The aquaculture fish cage encounters random waves in the
open sea. Understandings of their dynamic behaviors are
important for design of the deepwater fish cages. In this paper,
the hydrodynamic responses of a gravity-typed fish cage in
irregular waves are studied based on FEM and Morison
equations. The floating collar and the bottom ring are modeled
by beam elements. Net lines are modeled by truss elements.
Hydrodynamic forces are calculated by a modified Morison
equation taking the relative motion between the fluid and
structure members into account. The displacement responses
characters (time history and spectrum) of the fish cage floating
collar in random waves are investigated. The response results
show some similarities between fish cage in regular waves and
irregular waves. Both rigid body motions and flexible structural
deformations can be seen of the floating collar and the whole
fish cage. The net volume changes with time in irregular wave
and also high frequency responses caused by the structural
deformation are observed.
Keywords: Fish cage, Morison Equation, FEM, Dynamic
Response, Irregular Waves
INTRODUCTION
The increasing demand for marine foods leads to the
continuously development of aquaculture industry. As the main
form of aquaculture, the fish cages technology has the trend to
move the near-shore fish farms to more exposed sea[1-2]. The
recent research on hydrodynamic behavior of fish cages mainly
focus on the dynamic responses of net cages in current and
regular waves. However, the fish cage encounters irregular
waves in the real ocean site. Thus, understandings of the
dynamic behavior about the fish cage in irregular waves are
needed.
frequency domain, Fu and Moan studied the dynamic behavior
of a rectangle-shaped floating collar in waves[3]. They found
that flexible modes greatly contribute to the dynamic responses.
Endresen and Faltinsen studied the vertical wave loads and
responses of circular collars[4]. Their studies showed that the
structural elasticity should be taken into account when
analyzing the dynamic behavior of the floating collar. There are
few published results of research on the dynamic responses of
cage system in irregular waves. Zhao and Li conducted
numerical simulations of a submerged gravity cage system in
irregular waves by applying the lumped-mass model[5]. Their
study shows that decrease of the mooring line force and cage
motion is obvious when the net cage is submerged compared to
the net cage is floating. Guo-Hai Dong et al. used the same
lumped-mass method and the principle of rigid-body
kinematics are used to establish the governing equations of
motion, then simulated the dynamic responses of fish cage in
irregular waves[6]. Their numerical results are close to the
experimental results but the elasticity of the fish cage structure
are not taken into account.
In this paper, hydrodynamic behaviors of a full-scale fish
cage in irregular waves are studied. Hydrodynamic forces are
calculated by a modified Morison equation which takes the
relative motion of the fluid and structure into account. Motion
responses of the floating collar and the structural deformations
of the floating collar and cage system are studied.
NUMERICAL MODEL
The traditional gravity fish cage is mainly composed of the
floating collar, nets, mooring system and bottom weights (like
sinker or bottom ring). Bottom weights can keep the cage
maintain a certain volume in current and waves. A bottom ring
is defined on the model to serve as the bottom weight in this
paper. The floating collar is usually made of HDPE plastic
material. Its flexibility allows it to resist sever loads compared
to rigid ones.

*
Corresponding Author, Shixiao Fu, Email: shixiao.fu@sjtu.edu.cn
1 Copyright © 2013 by ASME
 In the numerical model, truss elements are used to fsec tion = ∑ ( fimmerged _ beams )i (5)
simulate the net structures, each net line is assumed to have a
cylindrical shape and the net knots are ignored. Beam elements The 6 DOF displacements of each distributed beam are
are used to simulate the floating collar and the structural forced to be equal, which makes them move and deform
deformation and displacement are studied[7]. simultaneously.
Meanwhile, the mass property and bending stiffness
Description of wave field between the original floating collar and the distributed one are
The irregular waves are generated by the superposition of also equivalent.
linear waves with a random phase angle each. The expressions msection = ∑ mi (6)
of wave elevation and water particle velocity can be written as:
∞ ( EI )sec tion = ∑ ( EI )i (7)
η=
( x, z , t ) ∑a
n =1
n cos(kn x − ωnt + ε n ) (1)
where msection and (EI)section are the mass density and bending
stiffness of the original floating collar section; mi and (EI)i are
∞
cosh(kn ( z + d ))
u ( x, z , t )
n =1
∑a ω n n
sinh(kn d )
cos(kn x − ωnt + ε n ) (2) the mass density and the bending stiffness of the ith distributed
beam.
∞
sinh(kn ( z + d ))
w( x, z , t ) ∑ anωn cos(kn x − ωnt + ε n ) (3)
n =1 sinh(kn d )
and an can be
=an 2Sη (ω )∆ω (4)
where an and kn are wave amplitude and wave number of each
wave component. εn is random phase angle and ωn represents
the wave circular frequency, which ranges from 0.3 to 4rad/s
with ∆ω of 0.05rad/s. In this paper, 75 linear waves are used to
generate the irregular waves and the P-M spectrum is chosen to
determine the Sη(ω).
‘Buoyancy Distribution’ method
Numerical Model of the fish cage
The mooring lines are modeled by nonlinear springs with
zero forces when they are compressed. Bottom nets are not
taken into account.
In FEM analysis, the beam element section is usually
simplified into a single 2D point. Depending on the position of
the centeriod of the element section relative to the water
surface, the buoyancy acted on it will either be zero (when the
centeriod is above the water surface), or the whole buoyancy
from the fully immerged element (when the centeriod is below (a) Plan view
the water surface). Were the floating collar partly-immerged, Floating collar
the buoyancy force cannot be calculated correctly. The
‘Buoyancy Distribution’ method is adopted in this paper to deal
with this instantaneous buoyancy problem by replacing the
partly immerged floating collar by several distributed coupled
beams, as shown in figure 1[8]. Net

Bottom ring

(b) Front and side view

Fig.2 View of fish cage model

Fig.1 Illustration of the distributed beams
Like figure 1 shows, 11 beams are used to simulate the 3D
floating collar cross section. Thus, the instantaneous buoyancy
of the whole floating collar section fsection should be the sum of
buoyancy acted on each immerged beam (fimmerged-beams)i, and
can be expressed as:
Figure 2 shows the numerical model of the whole fish
cage. The Coordinate system regulations comply with the right
hand rule. The horizontal direction is the X direction and the
vertical direction is the Z direction.
Material and Properties

2 Copyright © 2013 by ASME

 The material and geometric properties data of the fish cage Wave propagation direction horizontal ( X )
are all from real fish farms structure design data, as shown in
table 1. The floating collar has a circular pipe section and the
The wave P-M spectrum is shown in figure 3:
bottom ring has a solid circular section. 4.5
Tab 1 Material and Properties of fish cage system
Model scale ratio 1:1

Sη ( m2*s/rad )
Field diameter of fish cage (m) 20
3.0
Fish net depth (m) 20
Floating Bottom net
collar ring 1.5
Section outer diameter (m) 0.3 0.1 0.005
Section thickness (m) 0.02 - -
Elastic modules (MPa) 950 950 350 0.0
Density (Kg/m3) 953 2000 1120 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Mooring line stiffness (N/m) 6000(extended) ω ( rad/s )
Fig.3 Relation curve between Sη and ω of P-M spectrum
EQUATION AND LOADS
For the floating collar and the whole fish cage system, the Time series of wave elevation at point (0, 0, 0) is shown in
structural dynamic equilibrium equation may be written as: figure 4:
[ m][ x] + [c ][ x ] + [ k ][ x ] = G + fb + f w (8) 4
Randon wave elevation

Wave surface ( m )
where [m] is the total mass matrix of the floating collar and
nets, [c] is damping matrix from the structural deformations of 2
the floating collar and nets, [k] is the stiffness matrix of the
deformed floating collar and nets. The loads applied on the 0
structure include gravity G, buoyancy fb and wave forces fw.
The hydrodynamic forces acted on slender cylindrical- -2
shaped bodies (like the floating collar and the net lines) are
usually calculated by Morison equation. For a rigid cylinder in
waves, the Morison equation can be written as [9]:
-4
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
π 1 t(s)
=F Cm ρ D 2u + Cd ρ Du 2 (9)
4 2 Fig.4 Time history of wave elevation
When a structure has elastic deformations, the Morison
equation can be modified as follow: Displacements and structural deformations
π 1 The motion responses of point A, B, C and D on the
= F Cm ρ D 2 (u ± a p ) + Cd ρ D u ± v p (u ± v p ) ( 10 ) floating collar in irregular (see Fig.2a) are shown in figure 5-
4 2
12. The displacements of point A and D in Airy wave (wave
where Cm is inertia coefficient, Cd is drag coefficient, D is
height: 5 meters, wave period: 8 seconds) are also shown in
cylinder diameter, u is wave velocity, ρ is water density, the
figure 13 and 14 to compare with the results in irregular waves.
velocity and acceleration of the structure element is vp and ap
The average maximum displacement in the vertical
respectively.
direction of these four points is 5.28 meters, which is a bit
Due to a lack of experiment data of the inertia and drag
larger than the significant wave height. The vertical motion
coefficients of the floating collar and the net lines, in this paper
amplitude of point D is nearly the same as the wave amplitude
the inertia and drag coefficient of fully immerged cylinder 2.0
in Airy wave (see Fig.13).
and 1.2 are chosen as Cm and Cd respectively for just research
Due to the irregular change of wave elevation, the motions
purpose.
responses of the floating collar are also irregular in time
All the simulations are performed in the FEM software
domain. This is quite different with that in Airy waves, where
ABAQUS/standard and the type of nonlinear analysis is
the motion responses are regular in a wave period.
adopted[10].
The horizontal motion amplitude is larger than that in the y
direction but smaller than that in the vertical direction. From
DATA AND RESULTS
figure 5，6，9 and 10, average drift motions can be observed
The random wave parameters applied in the numerical
simulation are listed in table 2. in the horizontal direction, which leads the x direction motion
curve not symmetric about the line x=0. This is caused by the
Tab 2 Wave cases applied in the numerical simulation nonlinear wave loads and large geometric deformations [6]. The
Wave spectrum P-M spectrum same phenomenon can also be observed in the horizontal
displacement of point D in Airy waves.
Water depth (m) 500 The horizontal motion time history of point B and D are
Top one-third wave height H1/3 (m) 5 very similar in time domain as seen in figure 6 and 10. This
Spectrum peak period (s) 11.4 tells that the torsion motions are not occurred.

3 Copyright © 2013 by ASME

 Due to geometric symmetry, the displacements of point A
and C in y direction are always zero, as seen in figure 5 and CONCLUSIONS
figure 9. This also can be found in the Airy wave situation as
seen in figure 13. Dynamic responses of floating fish cage in irregular waves
However, significant movements in y direction can be are studied in this paper. Due to its flexibility, the motion
observed on point B and D as shown in figure 7 and 11, which responses of the floating collar contain not only rigid body
is obviously caused by elastic deformations. Therefore, one can motions but also flexible structural deformations.
conclude that the responses of the floating collar are composed Large structural and geometric deformations are observed
of both rigid body motions but also structural deformations. for both the floating collar structure and the whole fish cage.
The deformed shapes of fish cage system are shown in The volume of the net cage changes a lot in irregular wave. The
figure 15-18, very large geometric deformations can be motion responses in irregular waves are compared to that in
observed. One can also find that the volume of the net cage Airy waves, and some similarities are found.
changes a lot along with time. High frequency responses caused by the structural
deformation are observed, which should be paid more attention
in the structure fatigue analysis.
Statistic of the responses parameters The results of this paper will give a good reference for
The statistical data of displacement responses of Point A to better understanding the hydro-elastic and dynamic behavior of
D are listed in table 3. aquaculture fish cages in irregular waves.
However, the numerical model and simulation results still
need experiment data to verify, which is very important and
Tab 3 Statistical data of displacement responses will be our future work. By the way, the hydrodynamic
Horizontal (m) y Direction (m) Vertical (m) coefficient of fish cage structure should also be obtained by
Point Max Average Max Average Max Average experiments.
2.33 2.89
A 0.46 0 0 -0.05
(+) (+)
1.64 0.56 2.47 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
B 0.33 -0.01 -0.2 This work was financially supported by SINTEF Fisheries
(+) (+) (+)
and Aquaculture as well as the National Natural Science
0.81 2.96
C 0.29 0 0 -0.19 Foundation of China (Grant No. 51009088 and Grant No.
(-) (+)
51279101) .We would like to express thanks for their support.
1.64 0.56 -2.8
D 0.33 0.01 -0.2
(+) (-) (-)
 (+) represents the maximum displacement responses
NOMENCLATURE
occurred in the positive direction;
(-) represents the maximum displacement responses D Diameter [m]
occurred in the negative direction. [m] Mass matrix
[c] Damping matrix
Point B and D located at the same coordinate in the wave
[k] Stiffness matrix
propagation direction (Horizontal), so the maximum and
average values in horizontal and vertical direction of point A G Gravity[N]
and D are nearly the same. And the structural deformations fb Buoyancy [N]
make them move opposite to each other in the y direction. So
fw Wave loads[N]
the maximum y direction displacement of point B (0.56 meters)
has the opposite value to that of point D (-0.56 meters). u Wave velocity in horizontal direction[m/s]
However, displacement responses of point A and C are w Wave velocity in vertical direction [m/s]
very different as they located at different coordinate in the wave η Wave elevation [m]
propagation direction. The wave elevation at where they
located significantly influences their dynamic behavior. ω Circular frequency[rad/s]
Sη(ω) wave energy spectrum density [m2*s/rad]
Responses frequency spectrum of the floating collar
REFERENCES
The responses spectrum of point D on floating collar in x, [1] P.F.Lader, B Enerhaug, A.Fredheim. “Modelling of Net
y and z direction are shown in figure 19-21. Structures Exposed to 3D Waves and Current.” Open Ocean
Due to the irregular property of the incident wave, the Aquaculture, June 2001
displacement responses are complex in the frequency domain. [2] Chun Woo Lee, Gun Ho Lee, Moo Youl Choe, Dae Ho Song
The domain region of the horizontal and vertical displacement and Seyed Abbas Hosseini. “Dynamic behavior of a
is 0.0~2rad/s. submersible fish cage.” Proceeding of Ocean, Offshore and
Much higher frequency can be found in spectrum of the y Arctic Engineering Conference 2009, OMAE2009-79328
direction displacement though its amplitudes are small [3] Fu, Shixiao , Moan Torgeir. “Dynamic analyses of floating
compared to that in other directions. This indicates high fish cage collars in waves.” Aquacultural Engineering, 2012,
frequency responses exist in that structural deformation, which Vol.47, pp.7-15
should be paid more attention in the structure fatigue analysis.
4 Copyright © 2013 by ASME
[4] Per Christian Endresen, “Vertical Wave Loads and
Response of a Floating Fish Farm with Circular Collar.”
Master Thesis, NTNU, 2011
[5] ZhaoYun-peng, Xu Tiao-jian, Dong Guo-hai, Li Yu-cheng,
“Numerical simulation of a submerged gravity cage with the
frame anchor system in irregular waves.” Journal of
Hydrodynamics, Ser.B, 2010, Vol.22(5), pp.433-437
[7] Li Li, Shixiao Fu, Runpei Li, “Dynamic Responses of the
Floating Cage System in Current and Waves.” Proceeding of
Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering Conference 2011,
OMAE2012-83284
[8] Li Li, Fu S X, Xu Y W, Wang J G. Dynamic Responses of
Floating Fish Cage in Waves and Current. Ocean engineering,
submitted
[9] O. M. Faltinsen. Sea loads on ships and offshore structures.
Cambridge, USA, 1990
[10] Dassault System, 2010. ABAQUS 6.10 Documentation

5 Copyright © 2013 by ASME

 APPENDIX
Motion responses of the four points (A, B, C and D) on the floating collar in irregular wave

4 2

Motion responses ( m )
Motion responses ( m )

Point A X Y Z Point B X
2
1
0
0
-2

-4 -1
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
t(s) t(s)
Fig.5 Displacement of point A (X,Y and Z direction) Fig.6 Displacement of point B (X direction)
0.6 4
Motion responses ( m )

Motion responses ( m )
Point B Y Point B Z
0.4
2
0.2
0.0 0
-0.2
-2
-0.4
-0.6 -4
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
t(s) t(s)
Fig.7 Displacement of point B (Y direction) Fig.8 Displacement of point B (Z direction)
4 2
Motion responses ( m )
Motion responses ( m )

Point C X Y Z Point D X
2
1
0
0
-2

-4 -1
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
t(s) t(s)
Fig.9 Displacement of point C (X,Y and Z direction) Fig.10 Displacement of point D (X direction)
0.6 4
Motion responses ( m )

Motion responses ( m )

Point D Y Point D Z
0.4
2
0.2
0.0 0
-0.2
-2
-0.4
-0.6 -4
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
t(s) t(s)
Fig.11 Displacement of point D (Y direction) Fig.12 Displacement of point D (Z direction)

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 Motion responses of the four points (A and D) on the floating collar in Airy wave

3.0 3.0
x y z H5T8_Point A x y z H5T8_Point D
Displacement ( m )

Displacement ( m )
1.5 1.5

0.0 0.0

-1.5 -1.5

-3.0 -3.0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Fig.13 Displacement of point D in Airy wave Fig.14 Displacement of point D in Airy wave
(wave height:5m, wave period:8s) (wave height:5m, wave period:8s)

Deformed shapes of fish cage in irregular wave

(a) plan view (b) side view (a) plan view (b) side view
Fig.15 Deformed shape of the fish cage in irregular wave Fig.16 Deformed shape of the fish cage in irregular wave
( time=29s ) ( time=67s )

Fig.17 Deformed shape of the fish cage in irregular wave Fig.18 Deformed shape of the fish cage in irregular wave
( time=84s ) ( time=108s )

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 Frequency spectrum analysis of displacement （Point D）
0.4
FFT of Horizontal displacement
0.3

Amplitude (m)
0.2

0.1

0.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Frequency ( rad/s )
Fig.19 Results of frequency spectrum analysis (Point D, horizontal displacement)

0.10
FFT of displacement in y direction
0.08
Amplitude (m)

0.06

0.04

0.02

0.00
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Frequency ( rad/s )
Fig.20 Results of frequency spectrum analysis (Point D, y direction displacement)

0.8
FFT of vertical displacement
0.6
Amplitude (m)

0.4

0.2

0.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Frequency ( rad/s )
Fig.21 Results of frequency spectrum analysis (Point D, vertical displacement)

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